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The group headed to Kadomai is side-tracked by a river flooding and find themselves in a rural town. The locals claim there is a Demon out at the 'old barn'…and Naru and Nori go to check it out. Naru teaches Nori the basics in harnessing his chakra sensitivity.

"Headed Home - Hide and Seek"

Rural Road to Kadomai

The Yamanaka family farm is a beautiful place, at least when there isn't an issue with the cows getting sick at any rate. The three travelling shinobi (Nori, Naru, and Sosuke) had come together as a group to the farm to meet Nori's family. It is the first time Nori had returned to Kadomai to see his family since he had graduated from the Academy and become a Genin.
Having helped with the cow issue, Nori's Father had walked with everyone back to the house. Upon arriving, the group was immediately met with two youngsters (even younger than Nori…about 6 and 8). The younger sibling was female, and the older a male. They ran up to Nori and gave him long hugs before turning to the others. As Nori introduced them, "Aiko and Aikihiko…my sister and brother," Nori's aging mother steps into the doorway, a tear running down her eye. Nori looks up, but then looks to his friends, "This is Tsukinamida Sosuke-san and Uchiha Narusegawa-sama, my friends." The two young siblings run up and try to hug both of Nori's friends.
Nori then reintroduces them to his mother, who welcomes them inside. Also welcoming them is the delicious smell of a home cooked meal. As the trio enters, Nori would blink, "Err…Hideaki-san?" Hideaki just happens to be at the Yamanaka farm, interviewing his family for research purposes. Nori blinks and then looks to his older two siblings that are at the table with Hideaki. Nori leaves the warm family reunion for questioning why Hideaki is there…letting Hideaki explain it.

Sosuke is silent as Nori has a heartwarming reunion with his family. His sister and brother would receive a smile from Sosuke and a bow in greeting. The hug was unexpected and unprecedented for Sosuke. He didn't know how to react so he just let he younger ones hug him and then proceed to meet the rest of Nori's family. He finds a tantalizing aroma flowing from elsewhere in the house. "Something smells rather nice." Sosuke mentions before spotting Hideaki. Sosuke inclines his head "Hayashi-san? Well this is a surprise." Sosuke glances to Nori. "This entire day is full of them it seems." he smirks and introduces himself to Nori's mother even though Nori had taken care of that for him. "Pleasure to make your acquaintance miss."

"Well this is an intriguing surprise," Hideaki comments as the team enters. He stands, and offers a bow to Naru in particular. "I am Hayashi Hideaki. I do not believe I have had the pleasure of your acquintance." He then nods to Sosuke and Naru. "It is good to see both of you again. I had dropped by Kadomai to learn more about the clans here. I thought I might visit a farm like the one you are from. Little did I know it was the one you were from until I had asked a few questions. I am fortunate to have my curiosity indulged by such good hosts."

Such a warm welcoming was actually a little unusual for Naru. Even a shinobi like herself couldn't help but to feel slightly nervous about meeting everyone… perhaps some finer clothes rather than her traditional uniform would have been good for this evening. Either way she sighed and greeted and bowed her head, a nervous cheeky grin rosing upon her as she accepted a hug from the younger Yamanaka merely patting them on the back. "It really is nice to meet you all, Nori-kun has been doing quite nicely in Konoha, as you all can see," Naru praised and greeted finally turning her attention to Hideaki. She had no idea who the man was but both Sosuke and Nori had an idea as to who it was, she arched an eyebrow and nodded in his direction. " Hmm, hello there it is nice to meet you as well,"

Nori ahs at Hideaki's explanation, even though he does find the coincidence a little odd, but he shrugs and then looks over at his two older siblings, "Osamu, my eldest brother, and Kazue, my eldest sister." Nori bows to them both and they get up and head over to ruffle his hair and bow their heads to the others. "Welcome to our house. Don't mind our mother's silence, she doesn't speak often." Kazue then interrupts and says, "Hideaki-san has been very kind. We were just going to move the party outside and bring lunch out since it is such a beautiful day. Would you all please join us? We could use some help though bringing everything out and setting up. I hope it isn't too forward to request getting your hands dirty?" She smiles.
The family wears extremely modest clothing. Nori's winter clothes (a coat of rags) must have been a hand-me-down by the looks of it. To Sosuke, the young ones start saying, "Can you play hide-and-go-seek with us pleeeease?" Nori smirks and looks to Sosuke, "You don't have to if you don't want to." They then grab Nori to play too…eerk. Naru is eyed by the Mother, who in turn then baps Osamu on the head with a wooden spoon. Osamu blushes, much like Nori does and then straightens out his shirt some. Uh-oh.

Sosuke shakes his head and chuckles softly at Hideaki "That sounds like you." Sosuke returns the greetings to Osamu and Kazue. When he's prodded to play hide'n seek Sosuke sweatdrops a little. He couldn't refuse the request of a child….let alone two….as a guest….at a friend's home…could he? "N-no it's no trouble at all. I'm not to handy of a cook or anything like setting the table so it's the least I could do." Sosuke explains. He looks to Nori as he is seized too. "I guess we didn't have much of a choice from the beginning." Sosuke laughs softly. The young Gansao would look to Naru then back at Osamu. "Hmm peculiar. That's seems to be a look of…" Sosuke blinks distinctly "Actually it's better I do not say. Shall we go then?" he looks back to Nori.

Hideaki regards Naru's arched eyebrow with curiosity briefly. He begins gathering up some of the food immediately as Kazue makes the request. "Speaking for myself, it is the least I can do to assist," he insists. He then falls silent. He looks over to Osamu as he is bapped, but makes no comment. After collecting the items he can hold, he walks to the door, balancing the food carefully as he reaches out to open it.

The situation did catch Naru a little off guard as she blinked helplessly in Osamu's direction, there was a slight flush to her cheeks until she instantly moved forward, brushing towards the door that Hideaki decided to go ahead and hold open. " Here… I can help also, after all the more hands the quicker this will go right?" Naru explained nervously, a few strains running through her silky raven threads, she helped herself to assisting Nori's mother with setting things up, anything to keep her busy in such an awkward situation.

Nori is dragged to the door, along with Sosuke, "Nope, not a chance unfortunately." Nori happens to catch the look and does one of those /Mooootheeeeer/ eyes, as if the match-making is embarassing him beyond anything. Nori's mom doesn't seem to care, if anything she is more amused by the embarassment. As the two of them are dragged out, Nori says, "Alright, alright, I'll be it first. You three go hide." What that means to the two youngest children is, "Come on Sosuke-chan…we'll show you our best hiding place!" Looks like he is being dragged to hide with the two of them. And off they go, each one trying to pull him by a hand towards the family's barn. It isn't huge or anything, but it is big enough to house a pair of horses, pair of oxen, a milk cow (none of which are inside at the moment), and a ton of chickens (which are inside). Nori starts counting down, "15, 14, 13…"
Kazue smiles at Hideaki, "Thank you. So, what else were you looking to know about us? We don't have much to offer, but what we do have is yours." Kazue follows Hideaki out the door with a bunch of wooden plates and bowls, and she shows the way toward the picnic tables between the house and barn. The tables are large enough to easily house twenty people. When your immediate family is 10 people, having any guests requires a lot of seating. Nori looks over at Hideaki and Kazue with a smile, "8, 7, 6, 5…"
Nori catches Naru exiting and mouths a heart-felt "Sorry" He then looks as Osamu comes through the door and shakes his head no. Osamu holds up a hand as if to say don't worry about it. He either wasn't interested in Naru, or just was used to their mother's antics. Nori smirks and finally finishes counting, "3…2…1, here I come." Nori calls over to Naru, "I'm going to blindfold myself and see if I can do this." And so he does…

Sosuke blinks as Aiko and Aikihiko drag him to a 'hiding spot' Sosuke blinks nervously as Nori counts down. "A sensible location I suppose. But Nori can sense chakra….or is getting the hang of it now. I think we should…." Sosuke stops himself for a second and realized that he was trying to explain shinobi concepts to children. Sosuke sighs and almost chuckles at his own foolishness. "Nevermind." Sosuke mentions as they drag him off. Once inside the barn Sosuke looks around. "Where's the best hiding spot?" Sosuke wondered in the back of his mind if Nori knew about this 'best hiding spot' he has to have played this game with his siblings before.

"I feel as though I have learned so much already," Hideaki replies, bowing his head to Kazue. When he reaches the picnic tables, he starts to set the food down, occasionally adjusting items as he does. It soon becomes apparent that he is setting the table rather meticulously for a picnic, ensuring items are roughly evenly spaced and aligned.

Narusegawa felt a little more at ease with Osamu not seeming to go further with overdoing the moment, nevertheles s she decided to continue to help out, hopefully to keep her hands full while getting ready to eat. As Nori called out to her she nodded and offered him a smirk. " It should be quite easy for you here, Nori-kun. Normal animals are a lot more difficult than humans and this place seems to be buzzing with energy," Naru commented though her attention wasn't entirely on helping him out… if anything she was a little lost while attempting to help move things around towards the picnic tables outside.

The younger children just blink at Sosuke as he starts talking about sensing…and then they say, "It's in here," and sure enough, they drag him into the chicken coop inside the barn…which is full of chickens. The chickens make a bunch of squawking sounds. Inside the coop is, well…a bunch of chicken poo too. The two kids enter too, with poo eating grins on their faces. Nori probably had an idea where they were anyway, but it was more fun this way. Blindfolded, he takes in a deep breath, holds out his hands, and then exhales. His senses reach out into the world around him, feeling for chakra. He can feel those nearest him, but that is not his intended target. He can kind of the animals out in the field, but that is too far away for the short count-down period…well, too far for his younger siblings to have run at least…and so, the only other chakra signatures are in the barn. He calls back to Naru, "I can see what you mean by the animals being different to feel." That is where he starts heading towards. And BANG…he walks into the picnic table. "Ow…" Nori rubs his shin and then walks around the tables, "It's been too long since I've been home." He sighs and enters the barn.
Kazue smiles as he notes Hideaki's slight OCD. "We aren't overly interesting, you'll have to forgive us. We live humbly off the land and care for the animals that live here with us. And then their time comes and we live off them too." She laughs a bit and then asks, "What about you Hideaki-san, do you like being a shinobi? I mean, I don't have a choice…like Nori did, but it is nice to hear stories about what I might have been in a different time." Kazue looks over to Naru, "Perhaps we could have been rivals." She smiles politely and then asks, "So, Nori is staying out of trouble?"
Osamu heads back inside and brings out the large pot of fish stock soup with Sobu noodles, perhaps showing off his muscles. The man places the soup down and looks over the table. He calls back, "Mom, everything is out…and…there's dad." Sure enough, the old man has returned from the cow pasture. "Everyone, we're ready to eat…" Nori continues to head into the barn though.

Sosuke peers as the children enter the chicken coop and blinks before covering his nose. "This is it?" Sosuke peers and sees the filth that was in the coop "No." Sosuke steps back. Sosuke didn't have many peeves but filth and sloppiness was one that irritated him the most. Sosuke shook his head. "I cannot do this." Sosuke backs up and folds his arms. Sosuke looks around the barn before hearing someone say ow. "Sounds like Nori-san is on his way." Sosuke looks back to the young ones. His eyes narrow with a grimace. 'But an unruly guest is even more unacceptable….' Sosuke sighs and takes a deep breath. "Clear the way." he says. Sosuke enters the coop, much to his dismay. He pondered the magnitude of cleaning he'd have to undergo before he felt clean again.

"Enjoy?" Hideaki ponders that question for a moment, and then nods. "I do. It has been my path for some time now, so it is hard for me to imagine another, but the shinobi arts offers a wealth of knowledge and possibility. You surely could have made an excellent shinobi should fate have chosen a different road for you. At the moment, however, I am grateful you are here with such a charming home and gracious hospitality." Hideaki then looks over to Naru. "It occurs to me I have not yet asked what brings all of you out here. Is it just a social call, or are you attending to more serious business?"

It seemed like Nori was quickly getting a handle of things, he was developing far more quickl than she had anticipated… perhaps he truly was uniquely senstive to chakra… With his senses guided things were coming along quite naturally now. Though as she escaped towards the picnic table she smiled back at Kazue, her legs lightly crossing along one another as she perked a brow at the question about Nori. " You definitely have a uniquely talented son, he has helped out quite a bit in what we have done so far. He has lots of potential and he will definitely be a greater shinobi as time goes by," Naru went on to say, buttering Nori up some with his family until the question was peaked from Hideaki. " It has been a year since Nori-kun seen his family… It's a nice break from our usual missions because after this things are only going to get tougher… I'm assuming you might be here for the same reason…?"

Nori enters the barn and feels his way into the middle, but more importantly…he feels with his senses, using his eyes (even with the blind-fold on), nose, and ears. The senses extend and find three chakra patterns in the coop. He frowns and states, "Sosuke-san, I'm sorry…they didn't drag you into the chicken coop did they? That is filthy in there…and it is time to eat." Nori sticks his head in and his younger siblings gleefully laugh and run out. They at least have the courteousy of calling back a, "Thank you Sosuke-chan!" Nori offers a hand to help Sosuke out apologetically. Leading Sosuke out to the table, asusming he follows and doesn't ask where the washroom is first…Nori sits and gets ready to eat.
Kazue blinks, "Oh, Nori isn't my son…he's my brother." Kazue motions to the older man and woman, "Nori's parents." There mustn't be much to do over the winter out here…ahem. Kazue breaks the awkwardness by adding, "Still, it is good to know my brother is getting along well out there." Old man Yamanaka seats himself at the head of the table and says a quick prayer to the spirits of the animals and plants that gave their lives in order to feed the family. It appears that Nori learned everything about the spirits from his father. The blessing finished, the man says, "Please, enjoy and eat all you can." Nori starts eating immediately. Kazue smiles at Hideaki and says, "Maybe some winter I will come out to Konohagakure and see what there is to the village." Her mother eyes her, but remains silent, "I'm not signing up mom, just looking around." This one might be a dreamer yet.
The food is delicious!